The present invention relates to an optical instrument and a method for efficiently scanning objects.
Use of surveying instruments in scanning land-based objects is prevalent. One such surveying instrument that can be used is the Total Station manufactured by Trimble Navigation Limited. Surveying is the science and art of making all essential measurements to determine the relative position of points and/or physical and cultural details above, on, or beneath the surface of the Earth, and to depict them in a usable form, or to establish the position of points and/or details.
Land surveying can include associated services such as mapping and related data accumulation, construction layout surveys, precision measurements of length, angle, elevation, area, and volume, as well as horizontal and vertical control surveys, and the analysis and utilization of land survey data. Accurately mapping the various objects in a land-based survey is essential to establish the scope of any construction project.
In particular, when scanning an object, the current scanning techniques requires that the user define the area that is not to be scanned in addition to defining the area to be scanned. This prolongs the setup of the surveying instrument and makes it more difficult to accurately configure the surveying instrument. In addition, conventional scanning devices define the area to be scanned as a simple rectangle since this is relatively easy to set-up and configure. In an instance where a stockpile is to be scanned, defining the area to be scanned using a rectangle results in unnecessary scanning of the “open areas” within the defined area (rectangle) that are not occupied by the stockpile. Such “open area” scans are very time consuming and expensive since it takes a particularly long time for a surveying instrument to determine that it is scanning an “open area”. Alternatively, a user has to precisely define the area not to be scanned in order to prevent “open area” scanning Defining such area requires a high level of precision that can significantly increase the time needed for configuring the surveying instrument thereby resulting in increased costs for performing the survey. In addition, if the “open area” is not defined properly, e.g., if the defined open area overlaps with the actual object area, there is a risk that certain portion(s) of the actual object may not be scanned resulting in erroneous data being reported.
Embodiments of the present invention address this and other shortcomings of conventional scanning methods.